Mastermind
by Missing Zero
Summary: In the darkness, there is always someone who pulls the strings. One who watches. One who schemes. One who calculates everything. That person is called A Mastermind. Full Summary inside. Person 3 AU.
1. Prologue

Mastermind.

Summary: In the darkness, there is always someone pulling the strings. One who watches. One who schemes. and One who calculates everything. This person is called a Mastermind. What difference will one person make? Apparently a hell of difference. Will SEES be able to uncover the mysterious Mastermind? Or will his plot suceed without them even knowing? Persona 3. AU.

* * *

Tatsumi Port Island, Gekkoukan High School, 1999

Within the walls of the school, a group of scientists worked on a experiment. A experiment that was part of a project that could very well change the face of the planet. The completion of this experiment, could very well give those scientists the power to control space and time! These scientists hoped to harness this power, through the means of creatures called Shadows.

These men were in the final stage of their experiment, of course they were all excited. They calculated every possible outcome, check every instruments in the room, observed the collected Shadows in the adjacent room through a glass window, and talked about the procedure for the experiment.

"Is every going as planned?" one scientist asked.

"Everything is running smoothly, far better than anything we could have expected!" another answered.

"No doubt that new guy had something to do with it." another said as the three looked to another scientist looking through the glass and the combine Shadows in the other room, "I mean, the guy basically came out of nowhere and is able to grasp everything we discovered in matter of weeks! How hell did he ever accomplish that?" he said as the three continued to talk.

The scientist of the gossiping was still looking through the glass as he watched the Shadows. In back of the room, another man was standing, over looking everything, with a look of eagerness, with a tint of greed in them. "Mr. Kirijo! We are ready to begin!" a scientist said from his computer. Kirijo, only gave a nod as the scientists all moved to their assigned positions for the experiment.

Everyone quickly got to their computers and devices, preparing for what might be the breakthrough of the century! All of them were filled with excitement for various reasons, while the one who was by the window, moved at a slightly slower pace than the others as a smirk crawled on to his face.

Within a few minutes, the long awaited time for these scientists where their hard work would bear fruit and lead them to fame and power. In the room containing the Shadows, two rods came out of opposite walls as they began to discharge electricity, before shocking all of the Shadows in the room. Their roars could be heard through the window and over the sound of the electricity as gauges on the computers increased at a fast pace!

"Process at 22%!"

"No anomalies have arisen!" Shouted another scientist, as all of them were monitoring their part of the experiment, while Kirijo looked on with a sick satisfied look. During everyone's excitement and work, all of them failed to notice that one scientist, smirking in the back.

"Process at 57% and growing!" shouted the scientist, "…Huh!? What the!?"

"What's wrong!?"

"I don't know!" The scientist shouted as the system began to go haywire, "Everything is starting to lose control!"

"Well, fix it!" Kirijo shouted, "We've come too far for this to come to waste!" he shouted as laughing could be heard. Everyone in the room turned their heads to the source, the so called genius of the project. "Wha? What are you laughing at!? Stop this! This is your system!" he shouted, but the scientist only laughed.

"Hu hu hu…Did you actually think that people like you can control this power? Hah, such arrogance." he said as he rose from his seat and walked to the front of the room. "To be vexed by such power, it is only natural to be blinded and yet move ever forward like mindless beasts."

"What was that!?" Kirijo shouted as he was beyond mad as he jumped to his feet, slamming his fists on the table in front of him, but the scientist did not flinch in anyway. He just stood there as the Shadows continued to roar and instruments were beginning to go haywire, with a smirk of satisfaction plastered on his face.

Everyone was trying to regain control over everything, but nothing was working, only getting worse as sparks began to fly and smoke start to trail out of the computers. "There is no point trying to stop it. The system is only doing what I programmed it to."

"What!? Why would you do that?!"

"Power is not for anyone who reaches for it. It is deserved by a select few. And you people, aren't them." the traitorous scientist said as the system was reaching critical, emergency lights were blaring, and electrical discharge was becoming more and more frequent! "When fools reach for power, only disaster await them."

"No! If we don't stop this, the result can be disastrous! Who knows what'll happen!"

"You've gone past the point of no return. This is the end result of your greed. Bask in it. Indulge it. It is all yours to enjoy." the Traitor sneered as the system finally reached critical as every began to blow, while the Traitor began to laugh as hell ensued the room! The room containing the Shadows also over loaded as the power of the Shadows became unstable as they unleashed their raw power, causing a massive explosion that was able to destroy the containing room and giving their freedom, as the mass of Shadows split up and went in different directions!

Because of the raw power generated from the Shadows, the operating room was destroyed in the blast, killing all in the room…or so it seemed. In the flames, one still remained on his feet. It was the Traitor, rising from the fire with his coat burning, but he paid little attention to it as he looked at the hole that the Shadows escaped from. "Ha ha…Now it's only a matter of time…" he whispered to himself as the fires intensified, engulfing everything!

* * *

A/N: This is my first Persona fic. I recently become addictied to the Persona series, more specifically Personas 3 and 4. Anyway, this is basically Persona 3 with a Mastermind that was the cause of everything, not like how Ikutsuki was, but on a more larger scale. Will include OCs. The plot will change accordingly. Personas will be created. And hell will be unleashed....on more than one occasion.


	2. Beginning of it All

Tatsumi Port Island, Iwatodai Station, April 6th 2009.

It is almost midnight as a train pulls into the almost deserted station. As the doors open a boy in his teens exit's the train with a bag and his headphones on his head. He looked around the station as he began to walk for the exit of the station. Ten years ago, this boy lived in Tatsumi Port Island, but an incident happened that claimed the lives of his parents. Since then, he moved to his relative's home, living his life normally, but now he returns to his hometown.

While he walked for the exit of the station, stopping to look at the direction given to him on a paper, when the clock struck midnight, his MP3 player suddenly died. _'What happened?'_ he thought to himself as he looked at his MP3 player. His MP3's sudden failure wasn't the only thing that happened, the lights turned off, every electronic device shut down, and an eerie green light became dominate as the clock stayed on midnight. To add on to the creepiness, the clock started to bleed! However, instead of freaking out, the blue haired teen just sighed as he left the station.

Upon leaving the station, yet another eerie sight, black coffins were standing up right in the streets. But still the teen kept his cool, not freaking out at the sight of those coffins as he descended the stairs. "Greetings, boy." said a voice. The teen looked to his left to see a man in a black robe and his head was hooded, shadows shrouding his face while he leaned against the wall. "Welcome to Iwatodai. And welcome to Tatsumi Port Island." the man said as he stepped away from the wall, "But I guess you already know that."

Despite the man's words, the teen didn't respond as he merely gave him a look. "Not talkative are you?" the man said as he walked off into the street, "Do what you want and enjoy your time here." he said before he walked off.

The teen merely shrugged his shoulders as he walked off into the streets. He looked at the paper in his hand as he walked down the road, looking at the coffins that filled the sidewalks as he headed to the place indicated on his directions.

* * *

Meanwhile, on the rooftops…

A group of three men were standing on the side of the building as they watched the blue haired teen walk down the street, keeping a close eye on him. One was wearing a red and black motorcycle jumpsuit, another wore a white sunglasses that shielded his eyes and a black vest with a high collar, black gloves that reached up his arms, and the last one was wearing a long blue and black tailcoat with patches of leather on his shoulders and chest and black pants.

"You think this kid knows?" asked the Guy Wearing the Red Jumpsuit .

"Not a chance." answered the Tailcoat Wearing Man, "At least not yet anyway."

"He seems to be accustomed to this." said the Guy with Sunglasses, "He doesn't seem to be shocked by the coffins."

"Think he's going to join them?" asked the red one as the blue one, probably the leader of the three turned around and walked away from the side.

"Keep an eye on him. There is some different about that kid." he said as his red friend scoffed.

"Like we didn't already know that." He said sarcastically, while looking down on the teen, "But I guess you're right, 'sides, I got something to do now." The Guy Wearing the Red Jumpsuit said as the Guy Wearing Sunglasses looked at him.

"Do not do anything rash."

"When have I ever did anything rash?" asked the Guy Wearing the Red Jumpsuit as all three of them left the rooftop. Back to the teen, he was already far away from the three as he continued to the place that was indicated on his directions. After walking from block after block, he finally arrived at his destination, the Iwatodai Dorm.

His sudden transfer to Tatsumi Port Island's Gekkoukan High School was too sudden to arrange a normal dorm for him, so instead he was sent to this dorm, temporary. He entered through the doors as he placed his bag in front of his legs. He took a minute to see if anyone was there, but no one was in sight. Or so he thought.

"You're late." a voice said the moment he took off his earphones. He turned to the left to see a young boy standing behind the counter, "I've been waiting a long time for you." the boy said as he snapped his fingers, "Now if you want to proceed, you have to sign your name there." he said as he motioned his hand towards the counter as a book materialized out of nowhere and opened up. "Don't worry, it just contract. All it says that you will take full responsibility for all of your actions. You know, the usual stuff." The boy said as the teen looked at him for a while before going to the counter and writing his name on the dotted line.

_Minato Arisato_

"Time waits for no one." the boy said as he grabbed the contract. "None can escape it grip. It delivers us all to the same end. You can't plug your ears or cover your eyes." he said as he turned the contract as it disappeared in thin air. The shadows in the room began to move towards Minato as it covered the boy in front of him. "And so…it begins." the boy said before he vanished.

Minato was confused about what just happened, but he didn't have recover as he heard someone's footsteps. "Who's there!?" a girl's voice echoed throughout the dorm as Minato turned his head to see a girl with brown hair. Minato could easily tell that this girl was either scared or extremely nervous by her short breathing.

What he also notice was something strapped to her leg and he knew exactly (Or he thought) what it looked like, _'A gun!?'_ Minato thought as he became on alert, making sure that he didn't do anything to my the girl more nervous or pull the gun on him.

Sadly, even though he did stand perfectly still, the girl was too jumpy as she pull the gun from her strap, Minato prepared for the worse.

"Takeba! Wait!"

The girl stopped as another girl behind her called out her. In that moment, everything seemed to change as the lightning of the room turned form eerie green to normal lightning as Minato's MP3 player, which suddenly died without warning, suddenly started to play. The girl had red hair and look a tad older as she walked forward. "I didn't think you arrive so late." she spoke to Minato.

"The ride here was long." Minato answered nonchalantly.

"I see." the red head responded, "My name is Mitsuru Kirijo. I'm one of the students living here in this dorm." she firmly introduced herself.

The brunette girl was confused to what was happening as she looked to Mitsuru, "Who's he?"

"He is a transfer student. Since his transfer was so sudden, it was a last minute decision to move him here." Mitsuru explained, "He'll eventually be moved to the boy's dorm."

"Is it okay for him to be here?"

"I guess we'll find out." Mitsuru replied as Minato looked at the two and had absolutely no clue on what they were talking about. Mitsuru then motioned her hand to the other girl and looked at Minato, "This is Yukari Takeba. She'll be a junior this spring, just like you."

"…Hey." Yukari said with a distrustful aura emitting from her.

But that didn't bother Minato much as he recovered from his confusion quite nicely, "Nice to meet you." he replied back as Yukari seemed a bit taken back.

"Uh….Yeah, nice to meet you too."

"It's getting late, the trip here must have exhausting, you should get some get some rest. Your room is on the second floor to the end of the hall, your things should be there already." Mitsuru explained.

"Oh, I'll show you the way then. Follow me" Yukari said as she walked towards the streets and motioned for Minato to follow, which he did as he followed her up the stairs with his hands in his pockets. The two juniors walked up to the second floor as they headed to the end of the hall, "Here is your room, at the end of the hallway. Pretty easy to remember huh?" Yukari joked as Minato only nodded his head.

"Here is the key to your room, don't lose them otherwise you'll never hear the end of it." Yukari explained as she passed the key on to Minato, to which the blue haired teen grabbed. "So, got any questions?" she asked Minato.

Minato thought about the kid he met when he entered the dorm and that contract he had with him. He was thinking about the purpose about the contract, besides that he was supposed to take responsibility for his actions. "What was the contract about?" he asked.

"Huh? What contract?" Yukari asked as she looked like she had absolutely no clue what he was talking about.

"Then what about the kid? Does he live here?" Minato asked, since Yukari didn't seem to know the answer for the first.

"Wh-what? There is no kid living here." Yukari answered as Minato was back to his confusion, he was sure that kid was real and that contract as well, "D-don't kid like that, it's not funny." Yukari said as she looked a bit scared to the question.

After asking his question, Minato thought about the boy and the contract and was sure that they both were real. "Hey, can I ask you something?" Yukari asked as Minato snapped out of his train of thought, "Um…" Yukari said as she seemed like she was trying to think of what to say, "Did you see anything…strange on your way here?" she asked Minato.

"Yeah." Minato answered plainly.

"I see." Yukari said as it looked like she was satisfied slightly with that answer, "Well, I better get going." she said as she began to walk off, but stopped shortly after, "You probably have more questions, but can you wait till later to ask them?"

"Sure." he answered plainly again.

"Ok, good night." Yukari nodded as she went to her room. After she left, Minato looked at his key as he felt tired, the trip here did indeed take a lot out of him and since school was the following day, going to sleep was looking great right about now. Minato unlocked his door and entered.

His room was just as any normal bedroom, a desk, a TV, and a bed. After getting ready for sleep, Minato fell into his bed and got under the covers as he thought about what happened tonight. But as tired as he was, he didn't put much thought into it as he turned to the side and drifted off into slumber.

* * *

Elsewhere in Iwatodai…

The night light shined on the streets as the Man in the Red Jumpsuit, the same one who was spying on Minato early, walked down the side of the street with his hands behind his head. "Man, Honcho is dead set about that kid being special." he said as he got to a motorcycle that matched his jumpsuit as he picked up the helmet that was sitting on the back of it. He put it on his head as he strapped it on, getting on to his bike and setting it for go! "Heh, but who am I to complain? At least I won't be bored anymore!" he said quite loudly, but not as loud as the starting engine on his bike!

Warming up for a bit, the Guy on the Motorcycle then poured the gas on his bike, making one hell of a racket, pulling back to perform a wheelie and peeled out down the streets. His two partners looked on from afar, when a window open up and an irate person was sticking his head out the window.

"Keep it down you bastard! It's after midnight for crying out loud!"

The two shook their heads as the Man with Sunglasses turned to his partner, "He like to stir trouble doesn't he?" he asked as The Tailcoat Wearing Man shook his head.

"No. He loves to raise hell." The Tailcoat Wearing Man answered as the Sunglasses Wearing Man just nodded as he turned around and lifted a _large_ cleaver sword that was the length of his body, if not more, resting it on his shoulder. "I'm leaving." he said before he walked off into the shadows.

The Tailcoat Wearing Man scoffed as he turned around, "I better be right about this…" he whispered to himself, then looking up to the almost full moon. He then walked down the street and into the shadows like his partner.

Moonlight Bridge…

On top of the Moonlight Bridge was the hooded man that Minato had met when leaving the station. He was on the highest point of the bridge as his robe was blowing in the wind as he held a card in his hand.

"So…another has appeared…" he said to himself as he stared at the card. "No doubt it's him. That boy from the station." he continued to mumble to himself as he released the card to fly in the wind, as the card was a tarot card. Specifically, the Fool.

The Fool card then disintegrated into shards of blue glass as they slowly disappeared into the wind. "Let's see where things go from here." the man said to himself as he crossed his arms as the moonlight shined on him.

* * *

A/N: Ok, I'll admit, besides my scenes, this mostly a rip off of the game with a few slightly changed dialogues. I try to come up with new scenes that didn't come from the game, but might be influenced by it. And by the way, I'm going to be skipping a few days game-wise. I think if I did the first day of school, it will be a total rip with only a tad difference, so I'm either jumping to when Junpei joins or when the Priestess Shadow appears.


	3. Monorail Mania

Mastermind

By: Shadow of Judgement

Chapter 2: Monorail Mania

Summary: It has been a month since Minato came to Tatsumi Port Island. Now he and his partners, Yukari Takeba and Junpei Iori are given the responsiblilty of dealing with a large Shadow that has appeared in the city. But as the team head to eliminate the Shadow, they run into diffculties and are now faced with a crisis!

* * *

Iwatodai Station, Dark Hour, June 9th

Minato was waiting in front of the station, sitting on the stairs. With him was Yukari and another guy, Junpei Iori. It has been about a month since Minato arrived in Tatsumi Port and it has been eventful. He was not moved out of the Iwatodai Dorm like he was supposed to, because he after only two days, an event occured that rendered him in a coma for a week, and the day after he awoke, he was recruited by the school group: SEES.

Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad. That was it was called.

Minato thought back on the day when it all happened. April 9th. It was only two days since he got to Tatsumi Port Island, but that wasn't an excuse for the event that was to come.

* * *

Flashback, Iwatodai Dorm, Dark Hour, April 9th

Minato was on the roof of the dorm, the eerie green light shined as blood water pooled together on parts of the roof. Before him was a blob with a blue mask and many arms each holding a sword in its hands. To his right, Yukari was knocked down on the ground, and by his feet her 'gun' that she'd dropped when the 'Shadow' attacked her. Momentarily frozen in place, Minato stared at the monster coming at him before his eyes drifted to the gun laying in the blood water at his feet. He stared at the gun as his mind was completely mixed, as he did not know what to do, but in the confusion of his mind, one voice came through.

"_Go on…" _the voice of the boy he met a few days ago, along with the image of his face appearing in his mind, said.

Listening to the boy, Minato crouched down to pick up the gun and when he did, he thought back on how Yukari was going to use it. Instead of pointing it at the monster, Yukari pointed the gun at her head, but hesitated. The image of her trying to pull the trigger flashed in Minato's mind along with various other images, as he brought the gun to his head. Like anyone normal person that put a gun to their head, Minato became nervous and began to sweat. He could hear his own heartbeat, as his breathing became heavy, but his resolve didn't waver as he said the word that came to his mind. "Per…so…na." he muttered as he pulled the trigger!

A gunshot could be heard as blue glass shards shattered from the other side of Minato's head! The shards then began to swirl around Minato, rising from his feet and moving above his head as they were coming together to form a body!

"_Thou art I, and I am thou!" _

"_From the sea of thy soul, I cometh."_

"_I am Orpheus, Master of Strings!"_ the voice of the being that was created from shards, floating in the air behind Minato. It let out a roar as the moonlight shined down on it and Minato, but before he could do anything, Minato's head then began to feel like it was being split open!

Orpheus was having problems to as strange sounds and a red light was coming out of its mouth as it started to shake uncontrollably as fingers pried themselves out of Orpheus as Orpheus himself was shattered as another being took his place from his remains! The new being that ripped itself out of Orpheus had a darker look as it had several shields hovering around it and was attached to it by a small chain, and it wield a sword!

Minato's headache stopped as the new being appeared, it let out a commanding roar, causing the Shadow flinch back in fear, as the being leapt into the sky to attack the Shadow, cutting off one of its many arms with great ease, showing absolutely no mercy, pinning down the Shadow with its hand and with one fast and fatal slash, the mask and all of its arms were cleaved off!

The various body parts flew in different directions as the mask disintegrated along with any other body part that was connected to the Shadow. After vanquishing it's enemy, the being roared victoriously as in a split second, it returned to Orpheus. Minato looked at Orpheus as it floated above him, a blue light surrounded it before disappearing in the air. Suddenly feeling exhausted to a point that he's never felt before, Minato collapsed to his knees, before falling face first into the roof.

Yukari rushed to his side, trying to wake him up, but Minato was not coming too. She tried again and again to wake him up as the others got to the roof. Tending to Minato, they took him off the roof to take him to a better place to treat him, wasting no time to help him. They carefully brought him off the roof, knowing that the power he had had taking a great toll on him.

As SEES left the roof, they failed to notice on several buildings away, on the roof of a normal building, stood the same hooded man as he stared at the roof of the Dorm. He had saw what had just happened, but said nothing at all, the only thing he did was uncross his arms and walked away from the edge of the roof.

* * *

End Flashback…

Minato was out for an entire week after that incident. He didn't think that he would be out for that long, but then again, he didn't expect to fight a disgusting blob that had dozens of arms! Anyway, after he recovered, he'd officially joined SEES. He didn't learn the purpose of the group until Junpei Iori, another junior and coincidentally a classmate of Yukari and himself, joined a few days later, then everything was revealed to the juniors.

Eliminate Shadows, Explore Tartarus, and overall Destroy the Dark Hour.

The Dark Hour is the 25th hour of the day that does not exist for many. During this hour those who do not possess the ability to experience the hour, are transformed into coffins and put into a slumber. They do not feel the sleep, they do not know they turn into coffins, and that is why the Dark Hour does not exist. During the Dark Hour, a place called Tartarus appears, in place of Gekkoukan High School. Tartarus stands high in the night, a deformed tower where Shadows dwell in. Until now, SEES have not been able to explore the tower because of the lack of members, but after the sudden bloom in numbers, they were able to explore the Tower of Demise.

Back to the current situation, Minato, Junpei, and Yukari were waiting for Mitsuru to join them before going off on their mission to eliminate a large Shadow that appeared on a train. It was important that a Shadow outside of Tartarus should be terminated, exspecially one that was larger then the normal ones, lest it cause destruction and then the city would panic when half of the city would be suddenly destroyed!

So it was no doubt that this operation was important.

The three waited on the stairs as they were anxious to get the operation started. "Where is she? It's been awhile." Yukari said as she was standing up in front of the stairs.

"She'll be soon here." Junpei assure as he drank his drink, while Minato only nodded in agreement.

Sighing, Yukari looked up into the sky as she saw the moon at its greatest. "What do you know? There a full moon tonight." she pointed out as the two boys looked up to see the bright yellow moon. "But it looks even creepier during the Dark Hour."

"Everything looks creepier during the Dark Hour." Minato added on. Soon after that, all three of them heard something in the distance, "Is that…an engine?" Minato asked as they were looking around to see what was the source of the noise.

"Huh!? What the?!" Junpei shouted as Mitsuru pulled up on a white motorcycle, and spooked all three of them.

"Sorry to keep you waiting. Listen carefully. Tonight, I'll be providing support from here. Everything else is still the same. The Shadow is located on the monorail, not to far from the station. To get to it, you'll have to walk on the tracks." Mitsuru told them as Junpei got a little distress.

"Are serious!? Isn't that dangerous?"

"There is no need to worry, no electronic device can operate in the Dark Hour. That includes monorails."

"But what about your bike?"

"It's special." Mitsuru simply explained. "Now if any circumstances change, I'll contact you immediately." she said as the three nodded their heads and headed to the station's platform, their target was the train that was on the tracks and with it the large Shadow that was a danger to city and its society.

* * *

Target Train…

On the motionless train, the cars all had at least one coffin standing in them, all of them containing the people who didn't have the ability to experience the Dark Hour. However there was someone who did on that train. A black haired teen was laying on the seats, sleeping by the looks of it, as he turned to his side. "Mmmm…." he groaned as he opened one eye. The teen saw green and black, which could only mean one thing to him. "Damn. It is that time of night again?" he asked himself as he sat up.

The teen was wearing the Gekkoukan High School Summer Uniform, while he wore the school's jacket over his shoulders. The teen yawned as covered his mouth with his hand as he laid back down. "Ah…I deal with this later…" he mumbled as he went back to sleep. Unlike most that could experience the Dark Hour, this student was hardly fazed by it. He didn't show signs of disorientation or memory loss as he treated the Hour like nuisanse!

Meanwhile the three juniors SEES entered the car as they looked at their surroundings searching for the Shadow, but the cab was empty, save for a coffin. The past few cabs had been empty of Shadows and the group was on edge, ready for anything. Junpei held his katana at the ready as he scanned the cab for any shadows. Then he spotted a black figure on the right end of the cab, laying on the seats!

"Bingo! Found a Shadow!" Junpei shouted as he charged at the figure as Yukari took more time inspecting the 'Shadow' as she gasp in realization!

"Junpei wait! That's not a Shadow!" she shouted, but Junpei was too gung-ho to stop his momentum as he closed in on his target! Junpei was about to bring his sword down, when a foot was jammed into his stomach, knocking the air out of his lungs as he backed up coughing for air.

The 'Shadow' turned out to be a high school student, and he was not letting Junpei off the hook for attacking him! The teen reached into his school bag and pulled out a three sectioned separated steel staff, connected by a chain, holding all three sections to sweep Junpei's legs then brought the three parts together to form the full staff as he jammed the staff into Junpei's chest!

"Who the hell are you and why are you trying to kill me!?" the black haired teen demanded to know as he pinned Junpei to the floor!

"Whoa whoa whoa! Hey buddy, this is all a _big_ misunderstanding!" Junpei shouted as he held his hands up to show that he didn't meant any harm while not trying to enrage this guy anymore!

"Enlighten me! Before I crush your chest!" the teen threaten as Minato and Yukari, by this time, ran up to the two and tried to defuse the situation!

"Wait! We can explain all of this!" Yukari shouted.

"Just put the weapon down and don't do anything rash." Minato said as the teen eyed both of them, looking at their person and saw two things that stood out on their person. The guns, The Evokers, that they had and the red armbands with the word SEES on their arms.

"Those guns? SEES?" the teen mumbled as he looked at those two items on Minato and Yukari, then looked at Junpei and saw the same items on his arm and waist. "You're part of Mitsuru-senpai's group?" he asked.

"Wha?" Yukari confusedly said as she was taken off guard by the question, not expecting him to say Mitsuru's name. "You know Mitsuru-senpai?"

The teen scoffed as he released Junpei from underneath his staff as Junpei quickly scrambled up for air, crawling back from the dude with the staff! "Yeah, I know her. I also know about that group of hers." The teen admitted as he sleepishly scratched the back of his head as he was slightly drozy from being awoken.

"How do you know about SEES?" Minato asked as the staff wielding teen rested his staff on his shoulder.

"Mitsuru-senpai and Akihiko-senpai have tried to recruit me into your little group, but I turned them down on their offer." he revealed to the three, slightly surprising them with this information about him being approached by their senpais and he said no to them.

"You said no?" Junpei repeated as he had gotten to his feet and grabbed his katana, "Why the heck did you do that?" he was puzzled at why this guy would decline joining SEES.

The teen looked at him as he then diverted his gaze to outside of the window, he had a serious look on his face that normally wouldn't belong to a teenager, "I'm doing something right now, I can't afford to split up my time." he said as if he wasn't thinking as he quickly caught himself, "Urk! I-I mean it didn't interest me, so I didn't join, simple as that!" he quickly said.

"What kind of answer is that?" Yukari asked as she heard his first answer, but didn't feel it was a thing she should ask about, so that was why she was refering to the second question.

"My answer." The teen roughly responded, "Now before you bombard me with more questions, I think it's high time you guys told me your names." he pointed out, "I'm still not happy about the fact I was attacked and now being interrogated by three random people."

Neither Yukari nor Junpei didn't do anything at first, they didn't whether or not to tell this guy what he wanted, but Minato stepped forward, "Minato Arisato." he surprisingly spoke, taking his teammates by surprise.

"Arisato? Oh, you're that transfer kid." the teen said as he looked at the other two, "Well? What about you guys?"

Yukari and Junpei wasn't too sure about it, but since Minato did, they decided to do the same, "Uh, I'm Junpei. Sorry for before." he apologized as the teen waved him off, he didn't seem to take the attack seriously.

The teen then looked at Yukari, "Okay, what's you're…???" he was saying, but then he started to look at Yukari more intently, making her very uneasy.

"W-what?"

"You're…Yukari Takeba right?"

"Th-that's right."

"So you're the girl that most of the guys at school keep drooling over.

"What!?" Yukari blushed as he bought it up so casually.

"Well, I guess fair is fair…Name's Shen Hashigane." The teen introduced himself, "I'm a junior at Gekkoukan High."

"Wait, you go to Gekkoukan? I never seen you around before?" Junpei asked but then a thud came from above! "What the hell?" he said as a Shadow suddenly fell from the roof! "Whoa!"

"What the!?" Shen shouted, as he thought back on the time when Mitsuru and Akihiko tried to recruit him. They both said the words 'Shadows' and 'monsters' in the same sentence and since he saw a monster before them that coincidentally looked like a shadow, he put two and two together and came up with an answer....or question, "Is that Shadow?!"

"You never saw one before!?" Yukari exclaimed, surprised that the guy who was supposivally was approached by her senpais didn't know what a Shadow was!

"Hell no! They never bothered me before!"

"Well, there's a first for everything!" Minato shouted as he held his sword tightly, waiting for the Shadow to attack, but instead of charging at the four, it turned around and fled into the next car.

Everyone was confused at the sudden appearance and retreat, but Junpei reacted a tad different, "What the?! Get back here you sonuvabitch!" He shouted as he ran after the Shadow with his katana at the ready to cleave the cowardly Shadow!

"Junpei wait!" Yukari shouted, but it was too late as the door connecting the cars closed. "That idiot! We're supposed to stick together!" Yukari wasn't happy that Junpei decided to take matters into his own hands, since acts like that always back fired.

"We have to catch up with him!" Minato shouted as he ran for the door, but as fate would have it, another batch of Shadows fell down from the roof! "!!! An ambush!?" Minato shouted as he jumped back.

"I knew this would happen!" Yukari reacted by getting her bow ready, pulling the arrow back on the string, aiming at one of the Shadows that stood in the way. She let go of the arrow as it flew to its target, but the Shadow drifted quickly to the side to avoid the arrow, sticking into the wall after missing its target. "Darn!" she said as she saw getting himself ready for battle, "Wait! Stay back, we'll handle this!" A civilian's safety was SEES top priority and letting one fight a Shadow was out of the question.

Shen twirled his staff above him as he broke it into three sections, holding the outer sections in his hands like clubs, while the middle section was behind his back! "Screw that! I'm not going to stand back when a monster pops up in front of my face!" Shen shouted as he charged the Shadows, swinging his staff sections, forcefully, yet graceful in a way! The Shadows had to put a little more effort in dodging as Shen swung his sections, each time nearly hitting the Shadows!

"Wait!" Yukari shouted as she was going to stop him, but Minato moved his arm in front of her, preventing her from stopping Shen.

"Let him go, I don't think we can stop him."

"But he might get hurt!" she shouted as Shen used his sections to bash at the Shadows, while using his legs to fend them off and attack as well. By the looks of things he was no ordinary student that merely studied martial arts in his spare time, It looked like more he was raised on it! His kicks seemed like they belonged to a veteran of martial arts and the way how he handled his staff also agreed with it. In any case about how he was raised, he was holding his own quite nicely against the Shadows.

"I don't think that's going to happen." Minato pointed out as he gripped his sword, "In any case, we have to destroy these Shadows, so why not help him?"

"I…guess…" Yukari unsurely said, she doesn't think that this was a good idea to go with.

"You guys keep talking about helping me, SO DO IT!" Shen shouted as the Shadows seemed to be getting the upper hand on him slightly, holding back the two Shadows' heads on two of his sections. Even going all martial art on their assess had its limits and he seemed to be reaching them! Minato and Yukari snapped out of their conversation as they moved to help him. Minato joined in the fray as he slashed a Shadow that was about to attack Shen from behind. Shen then pushed the two Shadows off as he roundhouse kicked them back. "Thanks!" Shen said to Minato as he responded with a 'thumbs-up' gesture.

The two stood back to back as Yukari shot one of the Shadows in the head as it fell to the ground and returned to nothing. Minato slashed his sword horizontally across the Shadow, before stabbing it in the face, causing it to disappear like the one before. Shen bashed his two section one at a time into the head of the Shadow, before giving a hard kick that sent the Shadow flying into the door of the train, giving it enough damage to disburse apart.

"Not bad you two." Shen commented as he swung his sections over to the front of him, catching all of them with one hand, as it lowered his arm to his side. "You guess look like you've been in your shares of fights." he commented as he noticed their experience in the way they moved, which suggested that they had a big deal of experience when it came to fighting these 'Shadows'.

But before either Minato or Yukari could confirm him, Mitsuru contacted them, _"Good work, but you must regroup with Iori, otherwise the enemy will pick you apart one by one."_ she said, _"From what I can tell, he is only a few cars ahead. Hurry!"_ she urgently said, knowing that the Shadows operated on instincts and knew how to use the strategy of 'Divide and Conquer!' For the best chance of success, the group had to rejoin wih Junpei and attack the enemy with teamwork!

Minato and Yukari looked at each other before running to the door to the next car. "H-hey!" Shen shouted as he was not prepared for the two to suddenly race off!

"Sorry! But we can't stay and chat!" Minato shouted as he left the car.

"Just get off this train, Hashigane-kun and we'll take care of this!" Yukari shouted as she shouted as she left the car.

Shen was irate at the advice as he stamped his foot into the ground, "Hey! I told you I don't run from fights!" he shouted, but the door already closed as he did, "Damn it, wait! I'm talking to you guys!" he shouted, but it was no use as the two gone and couldn't hear his voice from wher they were already. Minato and Yukari raced through the car, trying to reach Junpei the fastest they could. There was no Shadows in the car, so they got through easily as they entered the next one. No Shadows was in this car either, but before they could reach the door, it opened as two Shadows came in!

The two SEES members slid to a stop, before they ran straight into the blocking Shadows! "Yah! Get out of our way!" Yukari shouted, but of course the Shadows did no such thing. The two prepared for battle as they tighten their hold on their weapons, however behind them, something approached! Minato heard the footsteps coming from behind as he swung his head back and saw Shen with his staff!

"Get out of the way!" he shouted as he drove his staff into the ground and used it to pole vault his way over Minato and Yukari and launched himself in between the Shadows, giving them each a hard kick that smashed them in the face(s) enough to vanquish them! He landed on his feet as he looked at the two SEES members, "Who the hell do you guys think you are!?" he shouted as he was visibility pissed off.

"I think the question here is what are YOU doing here!? I told you to leave and let us handle this!"

"You think I give a damn about that!? I already told you that I ain't running!" he shouted, as another Shadow appeared from the door and was about to attack Shen from behind!

"*gasp* Look out!" Yukari shouted, as Shen swung his head to look over his shoulder to see the ugly mug of the Shadow that was just seconds away from tearing into his back! Before he could do anything, he saw Minato rush forward with his sword ready to pierce and seeing that it was easier to avoid the sword rather than the Shadow, Shen turned his body so that Minato's blade pierced the head of the Shadow!

The Shadow disappeared to nothing as Shen regained his balance, "Wow." Was all he could say, "I didn't think you would do that." he said as he didn't seem offended by the attack, instead seemed taken by surprise, he didn't think that Minato was the impulsive type, he thought that he was more like the 'speak when spoken to' kind of guy.

"You seemed like the one who trains too much, so I figured you could dodge that easily." Minato responded, right after that his communicator came on.

"_What's going on? Why have you two stopped? Is there a problem?" _Mitsuru asked.

"You could say that, a guy named Shen Hashigane who won't leave the train." Yukari answered as Mitsuru sounded slightly surprised.

"_Hashigane? He's on the train?" _she asked, which Yukari seemed a tad surprised this time.

"Wait, you mean to say that you know him?" Yukari asked as she didn't believe the story that Shen told them awhile back about him being contacted by their senpai and him turning down their offer.

"_Yes, we discovered he had the talent and we tried to recruit him, but he declined to joining SEES." _Mitsuru explained, _"Hashigane can prove to be an assistance, but Arisato, the decision is all up to you_."

Minato knew that with more people helping, the easier it would become and he saw how good Shen was, so the choice was obvious, "Do you want to help us or not? Be quick about it." Minato said, knowing that time was of the essence and none could be wasted.

"Damn right, I'm going to help!" Shen answered quickly, which Minato was perfectly fine with.

"Wait wait! Do you really think that he should get involved?" Yukari said as she still was not sure about letting Shen fight Shadows, since she still thought it was a bad idea to drag a civilian into battle.

However, Minato completely thought otherwise and thought it was a great idea, but he knew they had no time to dicuss it. "Now is not the time to argue about this Yukari. Let's go!" Minato shouted, racing off into the next cab, Shen followed quickly before Yukari could protest anymore. Seeing that trying to change either of the boys mind was next to impossible, Yukari sighed and decided to just give up and followed them.

Meanwhile, ahead several cars was Junpei. He had chased that Shadow to here and now he was in a situation. He was surrounded from all sides by Shadows, attacking each time another did. With enemies from every direction, Junpei did the first thing that came to mind, swing his katana wildly and hoped he hit something. That strategy wasn't working as good as he hoped. The Shadows were too quick for him and every time he missed a Shadow would slam into his back, ram into his back, or just slap his back hard.

"Damn it! Give me some space, will ya!?" Junpei shouted as he tried to hack at the Shadows, but still no luck. As he fought off the Shadows, the others ran in and quickly got to the brawl!

"Junpei!" Yukari shouted as Junpei valiantly continued to fend off the Shadows.

"Its okay! I got it under control!" he badly lied.

"That's complete BS!" Shen shouted as he got his staff ready, "Get ready! I'm coming in!" Shen shouted as he leapt into the fray, jumping over Junpei just enough to plow his foot into the Shadow's face that was about to attack Junpei!

"Come on Yukari!" Minato shouted as he too joined the battle. Yukari aimed her bow and stood back as the fighting continued. Junpei swung his katana down on a Shadow that looked like a glove, bringing it down hard on it as he cut into the Shadow. Minato was dealing with a bird looking Shadow and he was having a tough time since the bird would always fly out of reach, before he could slash it. However the beast employed the same tactic, which gave Yukari the perfect opportunity to lodge an arrow in its head!

The scuffle ended when the Shadows were reduced into nothing, everyone was a little tired after the brawling as they were trying to catch their breath, but Junpei was breathing a bit more heavy than the others. "Junpei, are you okay?" Minato asked as Junpei was pushing on his knees, while he got his air.

"Y-yeah. I just need to catch my breath." Junpei said as he continued to breathe in fresh air.

Yukari looked at him with an annoyed look, since he ran off on his own without thinking and thereby putting himself and the mission in danger, "You wouldn't be like that if you haven't run off! What were you thinking? You almost got killed!" she shouted, Junpei stood up as he somewhat embarrassed look.

"I-I was perfectly fine!" he lied badly, but before anyone could counter him, Mitsuru called over their communicators.

"Be careful everyone! Although I don't sense any enemy nearby, stay on guard!" she warned as the next thing that happened was that the train started to move! Everyone was stunned at what was happening as it took them a while to really think what was happening.

"Whoa, What the? Are we moving?" Junpei asked as he looked out side the window to see the surroundings slowly moving by.

"_It seems that the monorail is under the enemy's control."_

"Whaddya mean 'it seems'!?" Yukari shouted as it didn't seem that the monorail was under the Shadow's control, it WAS under the Shadow control! And if it things couldn't get worse, the monorail started to move faster.

"Are we moving faster!?" Shen shouted as he noticed that the surroundings outside were now flying past the windows. "O~h shit, this is soooo not good!" he shouted as dread could be heard in his voice.

"_If this thing continue as is, it will crash into another train!" _Mitsuru shouted, as the situation got even worse and everyone knew how worse it was!

"WHAT!?" Yukari shouted as the situation was now in the 'gone to hell' range and began to panic, "Oh no, what we going to do!?" she shouted as her voice had panic in it. "How are we supposed to stop it!?"

"_Calm down and listen, I can sense a powerful presence in the front car, it must be the Shadow we're after. If you defeat if, then the train should stop!" _she explained as Minato quickly acted!

"Got it! Come on!" he shouted as he head for the first car! Everyone was taken back by his sudden rush and each reacted in their own way.

"Heh! Don't have to tell me twice!" Junpei shouted. Gripping his sword, he quickly raced after Minato, following his lead to defeat the Shadow!

"Hey! Don't run off on your own you two! Haven't you learned anything!?" Shen shouted as he quickly off after them. Yukari was left behind by the three as she had to regain her sense about the entire situation, while also being surprised about how fast Minato adjusted to the situation.

"H-hey! Wait up guys!" she shouted as realized how fast the three boys were moving as she ran after them, determined not to get left behind in the uncontrollable train.

* * *

Meanwhile…

Far ahead on the tracks, was another stationary train that was frozen in time due to the Dark Hour and thereby in the path of the on coming train that was far in the distance. However, besides the stationary train, was a shadow. Not a creature Shadow, but an actual shadow of a person. A person with large cleaver sword hoisted on his shoulder! The man's sunglasses hid his eyes and blocked any signs that would show on his face, since he had on a impassive face that reveal absolutely nothing at all! The looked at the incoming train in the far distance as he then began to walk down the track, stopping at least 50 yards from the stationary train, lowering his sword from his shoulder, standing firm and strong!

* * *

A/N: I have to admit, this story is coming along more nicely than I would have thought. So anyway, next chapter!

How will our heroes survive this?

Can they defeat Shadow?

Can they stop the train and save the innocent lives on them!?

Of course they can, they're the heroes! but find how they do it in the next chapter!

Here is a preview a little segment I'll call Original Character Corner!

Here is how it will go, when enough information is given about my OCs that appear in the story, I'll give more detail and battle details about the OC, like what Arcana his Persona is part of, its skills, its defenses and an opitional backround history about them. Of course since I just introduced Shen, don't expect him to show up right away, but do except some incomplete data of the other OCs that will fill up as time goes on!

Till the chapter, **ADIOS!**


	4. The Priestess

Mastermind

Chapter 3: The Priestess

Summary: SEES (and Shen) have finally arrived at the front of the runaway train. Inside it, lay the targetted Shadow as it has indeed hijacked the train! Now into battle they charge into!

* * *

The four juniors of Gekkoukan High fought their way to the front car through hordes of Shadows to stop the runaway train that was bound to crash into another! They finally got to the door that leads to the front car, and since the objective was beyond that door, they took this little time to prepare themselves.

"We're finally here! So that big Shadow is supposed to be past here?" Junpei asked, preparing himself for the big battle with the big Shadow.

"Correct. Are you ready?" Mitsuru asked as everyone knew how to answer that question.

"Of course." Minato said as he grabbed the handle of the door, pulled it open and rushed in! The other three rushed in after him as they saw the Shadow! It took on the form of a female, whose body was split between black and white, with its hair looking a lot like wiring that spread all over the room and attached themselves to the walls and floors!

"Wow! That thing is big!" Shen commented as the Shadow was so big that it barely fit in the room itself!

Junpei however was more startled by its size, "Forget big! That thing's huge! Is this really the friggin boss!?" he shouted, since the size of the Shadow was far bigger than anything he had ever seen. No Shadow that they encountered in Tartarus was anywhere near this Shadow's size!

"We're in the front car! It has to be it!" Yukari shouted as the entire team was getting ready for combat against the large Shadow, but to make things difficult, the Shadow's hair lifted up as it made a type screech that summoned smaller Shadows to its aid! "What!? It called for help!?" she shouted, seeing the floating Shadows that they had dealt with in the other cars.

"Tch! It just makes things more harder!" he shouted, looking back to his teammates who all was ready for battle, "Just ignore the small ones! Taking out the main one is our concern!" he shouted as he managed to get past the minion Shadows and slashed at the main Shadow, but he did little damage against it.

The others tried to do the same thing, but were met with resistance, Junpei and Shen were blocked by the minion Shadows as Yukari couldn't get a clear shot because the minion Shadows were getting in her way! "Easier said than done!" Junpei shouted as he pushed his blade against the minion Shadow's head, not able to force it back as the two were in a deadlock. "Damn it! Just turn into a blob of shadows already!" he shouted at the Shadow, but it only pushed harder.

Shen tried as well to get past the minions in order to get to the main Shadow, but he made tough resistance. Even though he was talented, fighting against something he never trained for was catching up to him, shown by the tough time he was having with the Shadows. He seemed to have trouble adjusting to the Shadows, as his strikes weren't accurate as he'd hoped. "Rrrrr…I'm going to bash your heads in! Now quit moving around!" he threaten the Shadows, using his separate sections to accomplish that. He brought his left section up bringing it down with enough force to destroy the Shadow with one hit! Not letting up on his attack, Shen brought his staff together, holding it on his shoulders and behind his neck, spinning around to smash the end of his staff into the Shadow, sending it flying into the one Junpei was holding off!

Getting slammed on the side caused the Shadow to stumble, giving Junpei the chance he needed as he forced the Shadow back and did one huge swing of his sword to slice into both Shadows! "Home run!" Junpei shouted victoriously with the defeated Shadows dissolving away from four different pieces. With Yukari, she continued to try and shoot the main one, but that one Shadow kept getting in her way and she decided that if that Shadow wanted to get in her way so much, why not shoot it? She took aim at the Shadow and release her arrow as it flew across the room and pierced itself right between the eyes!

After the last minion fell, the others joined Minato in his attack on the Main Shadow, dodging its hair that was charged with electricity! The hair cables thrashed around the room with electrical discharge, trying to whip Minato, but he was able to avoid the whipping hair like wires until he was unable to avoid one that he failed to see coming and shocked his left arm!

"Argh!" Minato grunted as he fell to one knee!

"Minato-kun!" Yukari concernedly shouted, pulling out her Evoker, pointed it to her head and pulled the trigger! **"Dia!"** she shouted as her Persona appeared above her, casting its skill and healing Minato's arm.

"Thanks!" he shouted as he moved his arm around to get the feeling back into his arm, while staring at the Shadow in front of him. Junpei and Shen ran up to him, flanking both of Minato sides to reinforce him in their assault on the Shadow, "This is going to be hard with those hairs flying around." Minato pointed out as the Shadow's hair cables was still sparking with electricity. " We need to get rid of those hairs!" he shouted as Junpei gave a thumbs up!

"Leave it to me!" he confidently shouted, pulling out his Evoker as brought it to his head and pulled the trigger! **"Cleave!"** Junpei shouted as Hermes appeared above him, dashing upwards in an angle, flipping over landing on the roof of the train before launching again at the Shadow, while lifting up his legs, slicing through the left side of the Shadow's hair!

The remnants of the hair cables fell to the ground with the Shadow flinching back after the attack as Hermes disappeared and returned back to Junpei. Shen readied his staff pressing it behind his neck as he charged at the Shadow! "My turn!" he shouted as he quickly avoided the remaining hair by jumping to side, away from the hair. Shen then used one of the Shadow's legs as a jumping pad to jump up to get to the same level of the Shadow's face, smashing his staff against it twice with both sides as he used its face as another jumping pad to get back, however in the air he was a vulnerable target for the remaining hair cables, slamming into the airborne teen!

"Gah!!!!!" Shen shouted as volts of electricity surged through his body and he was blasted to the ground, slightly sizzling from the burns he'd suffered from the shock. Yukari was about to heal him, but he stood up quickly despite his wounds. "Ack. My body's numb." he complained stretching out his body to restore his muscles, but as soon as they felt better, he returned battle quickly.

Minato and Junpei slashed into the Shadow as they backed off whenever the hair cables lashed out at them. "Man! This is annoying!" Junpei shouted with the hair cables blocking their attempts of attack and things got worse when the severed hairs grew back! "Oh come on! Like you need any more advantages!" a frustrated Junpei shouted to the Shadow as the thrashings of the hairs increased!

"This isn't looking good." Minato said out loud as he and the others had to back off from the violent attacks.

"What was your first clue?!" Shen sarcastically shouted, "Damn, at this rate we won't be able to stop this thing!" Shen shouted, swatting away the cables that got too close, but he could feel the small zaps of electricity in his hands every time he hit one.

Knowing that time was not on their side, Minato had to think of a strategy that could defeat this resilient Shadow and stop the train. Then Minato was struck with an idea! "Yukari!" he called out, "Can you get clear shot?" he asked, with Yukari slightly confused by the question.

"Wh-what?" she asked, taking some time to see if she could shoot the Shadow, "No, not with all those cables flying around!" she answered, "Someone has to move those things before I can shoot!"

"Leave it to me!" Shen shouted, boldly taking the job of occupying the cables, separating his staff into three then charging the Shadow. As the hair cables tried to hit him, he ducked under them, swing his sections as they went under the cables and hit the Shadow's leg! "Hey ugly! I'm wide open, come get me!" taunting the Shadow worked as all of the cables rushed at Shen, but he was ready by swinging his staff into the storm of cables. Electricity instantly flooded his body, but he fought through the pain as he wrapped the cables around his staff and jammed his staff into the ground, holding it down while his body was being shocked!

"Shen!/Shen-kun!"

"What are you waiting for!? Shoot! Shoot!!" Shen shouted as he struggled to hold his staff. Yukari quickly grabbed an arrow, aimed for the Shadow's face, and released her arrow as it soared across the room unopposed and lodged itself in the Shadow's face! "Got it!" Yukari victoriously cheered as the Shadow screamed in pain.

"Junpei! Let's go!" Minato shouted as he ran under the cables and for the Shadow!

"Right behind you!" Junpei shouted, running under the opposite end of Minato. The two then used the legs as launching pads like Shen, slashing across the face of the Shadow creating an X-slash! While in the air, both of them pulled out their Evokers as they prepared themselves to summon their Personas.

"**Bash!"**

"**Cleave!"**

The two Persona appeared and performed their respective moves, Orpheus held his harp high above his head as Hermes charged at the Shadow with both of his feet ready to slice, crashing into the side of the Shadow's face and cutting it, leaving it open for Orpheus to smash his harp directly on the head of the Shadow! The electricity died in the cables as Shen ripped his staff out of the mass of cable, while the Shadow screamed in pain before turning into a mush of nothing.

The Shadow was defeated, the group completed their mission, however there was one thing amiss. The train was still moving! "W-wait a minute! We killed the damn thing, why is the train still moving!?" Shen shouted as he held his hands low, his arms were numb at the moment, but he could still feel the burns by his shoulders.

"T-this isn't good! We're moving way too fast! We gotta put on the brakes or else…!" Yukari trailed off as the train was still moving at a fast speed!

"_What are you waiting for!? There is a train up ahead!"_ Mitsuru shouted over the communications as the team started to panic. The speed of the train was making the train itself a little shaky as everyone grabbed on to either a rail or a seat corner, holding on so they wouldn't fall down. For Shen's case, since he was already sitting on the ground, he just rolled under the seats.

"W-w-wait a minute! I don't know stop this thing!" Junpei shouted as he held on to the vertical railing.

"Well, we gotta do something! Otherwise we're going to be worse than dead meat!" Shen shouted as he braced himself for the worse, by huddling against the wall of the train, while covering his head as his arms' feeling returned into them.

Things was not looking good as the stationary train was coming up fast! Everyone braced from impact as they thought it was all over, but Minato didn't. Instead he raced for the control room with all that his legs could muster, hoping that he can get there in time!

"Kyaaah!!!!!"

"O~H SHIT!!"

Everyone feared the worse as the train suddenly came to a complete stop, the wheels of the train screeching a high pitch scraping noise. The sudden stop caused everyone to jerk forward. Yukari and Junpei were okay, since they were holding on to the railings, but Shen crashed his head into the barrier of the seats.

"*sigh* Made it." Minato said, feeling a weight being lifted off his shoulders as he let go of the lever for the brake. He looked up and out of the window and saw something strange. There was man standing in front of the other train with a huge sword in his hand as it looked like he was about to cut something, but choose not to. It was dark and he wasn't sure, but Minato thought that the man was wearing a black vest and black pants, so Minato couldn't see any noticeable features besides his sword, but then the man walked away before Minato could have a better chance to look at him.

Junpei and Yukari keep their eyes closed shut, unsure of what happened as they slowly opened them. Junpei looked around to see if they'd crashed or not. 'D-did we stop?"

"I-I think so…" Yukari answered as a loud groan came from out of the seats.

"My head!" Shen groaned as he rolled out from under the seats and held his head in pain.

"_Is everyone alright!?"_

"Uh, y-yeah, we're okay." Yukari said as she got to her feet, but she had a little hard time standing up, "Ha ha, ….My knees are shaking." she said while Junpei got to his feet, wiping his forehead with his sleeve.

"Dude, I'm like drenched in so much sweat!" he said continuing to wipe the sweat away from his eyes. The last person on the floor, Shen finally got up to his feet, but he was still holding on to the back of his head that had slammed hard into the metal.

"My head hurts….But its nothing new." Shen said as he rubbed the back of his head, then looked around on the ground, "Now where did my staff go?" he said to himself as he looked under the seats on the other side.

"_*sigh* I'm so glad all of you are safe. I'm sorry I couldn't do more on my end, but I don't detect any more Shadow in the area. You all did a great job, so come on home." _

"Found it!" Shen shouted as he retrieved his staff from under the seats, dusting it off of dust that it might have collected as Minato walked out of the control room.

"Man, Minato you sure saved us from a bad ending!" Junpei said as Minato looked behind over his own shoulder, "Uh, What's wrong?" Junpei asked as Minato snapped out of his thoughts and shook his head.

"It's nothing."

"Nah, I don't blame you, that was an intense moment." Junpei said as he didn't mind Minato's answer, "Glad you were able to pick the right one and not something else." he jokily said.

"But how did know which one was the brake?" Yukari asked as she was wondering how Minato pulled that off without knowing anything about trains.

"I guessed." he plainly answered, shocking the others.

"What!? You mean you just randomly did anything!?" Junpei shouted as Minato nodded his head, "Well, The train stopped so I guess everything came out right."

"But…Guessing at a time like that doesn't seem….eh, safe?" Shen said unsurely as he did not know how to react to the situation as his life and a bunch more was saved by a guess. "But whatever works, right?"

"Well in any case, you saved me again. Thanks." Yukari thanked.

"No problem." Minato said as he felt a surge of power. (This would be the part where the Fool Social Link strengthens, but I don't know how exactly how to do it, so I'll skip cause you all know what happens)

Shen then started walking to the door as Junpei notice, "Yo Shen! Where are you going?" he asked as Shen looked over his shoulder with an exhausted look on his face, which was completely understandable seeing what all of them went through.

"I'm getting my stuff, going home, and go sleep. Thank god tomorrow's Sunday." he said as he was about to open the door.

"Hey wait! Why don't you join SEES?" Junpei asked as Shen stopped in his tracks and turned around, "You were great when you were fighting with us, kicking Shadow's asses would be much easier with you around!" he exclaimed, but Shen didn't feel the same way.

"No thanks." Shen said out right, "I already told you guys I wasn't interested in joining SEES." he finished as he left the room to retrieve his school bag.

"H-hey!"

"Let him go Junpei." Yukari said as Junpei looked at her, "If he doesn't want to join, we can't force him. Right Minato-kun?" Yukari asked as she looked at Minato, but he was looking over his shoulder and out the front window, completely preoccupied with his thoughts, "Minato-kun?"

Once again, Minato was taking out of his thoughts, but this time he had no clue what the other two were taking about, "Huh?"

"Dude, are serious okay? You're spacing out." Junpei asked as he obviously noticed that Minato was acting strange. "Are you, like, okay?"

"I'm fine. It's just that…"

"It's just that what?"

"I thought I saw someone in front of the train." Minato said, bewildering his teammates, as the confusion was easily spotted on their face.

"Wait a minute, you SAW someone in front of the train?" Yukari asked as Minato nodded his head to clarify her question. "What kind of guy?"

"He had a giant sword. That was the only thing I could recognize about him." he explained as all he did was confuse his teammates more and more. They did not know what to think about what Minato was saying, a guy with a giant sword, standing on the middle of the tracks during a hidden 25th hour?

"Are you sure you saw someone? Maybe you were just seeing things because of the moment." Junpei spoke his opinion as Minato shrugged his shoulders in defeat.

"I don't know, I couldn't see his face and before I could get a better look, he just walked off into the shadows."

"Heh, You're making sound like you saw a ghost." Junpei said as Yukari quickly looked at him, first startled, then angry.

"Don't be stupid Junpei! There is no such thing as ghosts!" she shouted as her sudden outburst surprised her two teammates.

"Whoa, where did that come from!? Unless…" Junpei said as he gave a devious eye to Yukari, "You're afraid of ghosts." he slyly said as Yukari got more defensive and the two went back and forward with their words.

Meanwhile, Minato was once again looking outside of the window as he was wondering who was that man standing outside. Was he planning to stop the train? What purpose did he intent to do by stopping the train? However, because of everything that happened, Minato was too tired to think about it as he had to break up his two classmates.

Down the tracks….

With the eerie moon shining on the tracks, it easily created a shadow of someone resting a massive sword on his shoulder as he walked down the tracks slowly. The moon light revealed that he had grayish hair and on his forehead, you could slightly see scars coming from his face. "Those were able to defeat that Shadow." he muttered to himself as he looked up, the glare of the light not leaving his glasses and not showing what was beyond them, "I should tell the others about this." he muttered once again, walking away from the trains and into the night.

Moonlight Bridge…

On top of the twisted bridge was a hooded man. He was standing on the top of the bridge, with the winds blowing past him and his robe flapping with it. He stared at the direction of the train tracks as he held a card in his hand, the card was the Tarot Card of the Priestess. The card then began to crack with a blue light, before it shattered in his hands! "The wheel has begun…Two defeated…" his voice echoed, barely hearable because of the winds, as he looked up into the big, bright, shining, moon.


End file.
